3 Homes Destroyed, Many More Threatened by LA Fire

LAKEVIEW TERRACE - A broad swath of the northern Crescenta Valley was evacuated, as the out of control Station Fire tripled in size to more than 20,000 acres and burned towards homes from Pasadena to the San Fernando Valley.

The Station Fire, which broke out Wednesday afternoon near a ranger station and the Angeles Crest Highway above La Canada Flintridge, has forced the evacuation of 4,000 homes and is less than 5 percent contained, fire officials said.

A 20,000-foot-high mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke and water vapor towering over northern Los Angeles could be seen for miles and was making air quality unhealthful.

At a news briefing tonight, Mike Dietrich of the U.S. Forest Service said about 1,800 firefighters were battling the blaze, with more on the way, assisted by water- and fire-retardant-dropping helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, including a DC-10.

Three residences in the Angeles National Forest had been destroyed and three civilians injured -- two in the Tujunga Canyon area and one off Highway 2 near Mount Wilson.

The wildfire was posing a new threat in the Acton area, and resources were being shifted there, he said.

The fire has crested the top of the mountains and flames were visible in Acton.

"It is currently over the divide," he said. "There's a half-mile wide fire front that is three to four miles from Acton and could be there possibly by early morning."

Dietrich said the fire was "a perfect storm of fuel, weather and topography coming together.

The fire burned at will. It went where it wanted to go. Went six to eight miles in four hours to the west and north into the forest."

Three residences were destroyed among the 75 houses and cabins in upper Big Tujunga Canyon, he said.

Hundreds of firefighters were being sent along Soledad Canyon Road and the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway to prevent the fire from blowing across the roads linking Santa Clarita with Palmdale.

"We are up in the Acton area assessing the situation, and also Santa Clarita," said Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief John Tripp.

No evacuations orders had been issued yet, but personnel were getting ready for possible evacuations in Acton and the Soledad Canyon area, he said.

Some 250 deputies, 50 Los Angeles police officers and 24 Orange County deputies were assisting with security.

County fire had provided 60 fire engines and was adding 150 more, while fire crews as far away as Tucson, Ariz., arrived tonight at the command post at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area in Lakeview Terrace, where flames flickered five miles to the east above La Crescenta.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is to visit the command post Sunday morning.

At a briefing late this afternoon, fire officials said the fire was spreading in all directions.

On its southern flank, the fire was bearing down on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory campus in Pasadena, where heavy flames could be seen.

The fire was also threatening a neighborhood across the Arroyo Seco canyon.

To the west, the fire was burning to Mount Lukens, where a lot of microwave towers and police radio transmitters are located. The equipment so far has not been damaged, according to broadcast reports.

To the north, the fire had crossed Big Tujunga Canyon and was burning toward Acton and Josephine Peak, past the Big Tujunga (ranger) Station along both sides of the Angeles Forest Highway near The Narrows bridge and landmark.

One person was severely burned when power lines fell on a ranger station in Big Tujunga Canyon. The victim was airlifted out of the freshly evacuated canyon, home to 75 cabins and numerous campgrounds.

Several homes in Big Tujunga Canyon were damaged and dozens of recreation cabins destroyed, fire officials said.

"There have been many many evacuations from Sunland to La Canada," said Randi Jorgensen of the Angeles National Forest.

No homes have been destroyed, but some residences along Starlight Crest Drive were damaged, Jorgensen said.

"Between 23 and 34 recreational cabins have been destroyed in Big Tujunga Canyon," she added. "This fire has been very busy."

As the fire neared the Los Angeles city limits, city firefighters were deployed in the Tujunga area, said the LAFD's Erik Scott.

"The fire is two ridges away from entering the city of Los Angeles," Scott said.

Fire officials said their goal is to keep the fire south of Mount Gleason and Divide Road, which runs east and west about eight miles south of the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway.

On the east, the fire has burned to the Red Box Sheriff's Station and the junction for Mount Wilson road from State Route 2.

Numerous strike teams have been stationed along Angeles Crest Highway near Mount Disappointment to prevent the fire from spreading east two miles to Mount Wilson.

The winds had picked up this evening and were blowing the fire southeast, away from the historic telescope and major broadcast installations on Mount Wilson.

Fire officials said the wind caused the fire to move north this afternoon, and meetings were being held to discuss how quickly it might reach Soledad Canyon Road and the Antelope Valley Freeway, about 15 miles north of the present fire lines.

This afternoon, residents in the northernmost reaches of Glendale and La Crescenta were told to get out of their homes, said Bruce Quintelier of the Angeles National Forest.

A shelter was set up at La Canada High School, 4463 Oak Grove Drive.

Evacuations also were in place north of Vista del Valle Road and east of La Canada Boulevard, including the La Canada Country Club area.

In northwest Pasadena, a voluntary evacuation was in effect for the Florecita neighborhood, including Florecita Drive, Florecita Way, Florecita Lane and Florecita Terrace, and an evacuation center was set up at Jackson Elementary School, 593 W. Woodbury Drive, said city pokeswoman Ann Erdman.

Near Mount Wilson, evacuations were ordered at Camp High Hill near the Red Box Sheriff's Station and the Clear Creek Outdoor Education Center, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

The fire burned south overnight and came within five miles of the steel forest of mountaintop antennae on Mount Lukens, Disappointment Peak and Mount Wilson.

Loss of communications facilities there would cripple fire and police departments across Southern California, which not only use mountaintop transmitters to communicate in the field but in many cases relay signals from other mountaintop sites back to dispatch centers via microwave facilities that are now threatened.

"These are extremely-crucial to the infrastructure and public safety protection, and the daily lives in the L.A. basin," Dietrich said.

Nearly all of the 22 Los Angeles TV stations transmit from those sites, and more than two-thirds of the region's FM radio stations broadcast from there as well.